{"id":21081,"date":"2022-07-21T08:47:58","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T08:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/marvel-artist-says-character-royalty-payments-for-creators-are-bait-and-switch\/"},"modified":"2022-07-21T08:47:58","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T08:47:58","slug":"marvel-artist-says-character-royalty-payments-for-creators-are-bait-and-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/marvel-artist-says-character-royalty-payments-for-creators-are-bait-and-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Artist Says Character Royalty Payments For Creators Are ‘Bait and Switch’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Marvel’s Black Widow is once again a legal battleground between Marvel and its talent.<\/p>\n

The co-creators of Yelena Belova say they thought they had signed a contract entitling them to $25k apiece for the Black Widow movie and the various other appearances that came along with it, such as action figures and video games. Instead, they were paid just $5k.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving spoken to a number of creators, Marvel’s financial offerings seem a bit of a bait and switch,\u201d artist JG Jones told The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cThey throw out a large number, then little by little they whittle down the actual payout.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes,\u201d said writer Devin Grayson. \u201cYou could win $1 million, but you won’t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essentially, the contract seems to<\/em> to offer very clear terms of payment. Her agreement, signed in 2007, states that Grayson would receive $ 25,000 for a theatrical film appearance of the character, $ 2,000 for an episode of TV over 30 minutes, and $ 1,000 for an episode of TV 30 minutes or less.<\/p>\n

\n

There’s even an agreement for toy sales and other merchandising, including action figure sales – $5,000 for one figure released in a single year, $10,000 for two, or $25,000 for three or more. When it comes to video games, there was a maximum of $30,000 to be shared among all creators who had a character in the game.<\/p>\n

Not exactly huge amounts for properties that regularly make the company billions of dollars. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there.<\/p>\n

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the contract includes language that would grant Marvel broad discretion to dramatically lower payments.<\/p>\n

One method of doing so is to split the sum of $25,000 between both artist and writer, meaning that Grayson and Jones would only ever have been entitled to a maximum of $12,500 each. Worse still, if the film features more than one character covered by a Special Character Agreement, the company is entitled to share the pot among all<\/em> creators involved in that movie.<\/p>\n

Essentially, that original $25,000 would be shared between all stakeholders, including those behind characters such as Red Guardian and Melina Vostokoff. However, a Marvel source states that there is no ceiling to payments made in these cases \u2013 it’s likely that the studio paid more than $25,000 to all the artists and writers involved in the film.<\/p>\n

Quite how much remains a mystery,<\/p>\n

Another way Marvel allegedly reduces its payments is by classifying some appearances as cameos. If a character appears for less than 15 percent of the film’s runtime, that’s considered a cameo, and this also reduces the amount creators are entitled to.<\/p>\n

Hilariously, as THR points out, Captain America would be considered a cameo in Avengers: Infinity War after he only appeared for less than 7 minutes and 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Who Is Black Widow’s Yelena Belova?<\/p>\n